Armover clamps are generally known in the art. Such clamps have limited applications, however, because they have a limited range of motion and can only lock at a virtually “closed” position. This means for applications where the jaw arm needs a wider range of motion or a thicker workpiece needs to be gripped, a conventional armover clamp cannot be used without changing the position of the actuator.
An illustrative embodiment of the present disclosure provides an armover clamp assembly that comprises a housing, an actuator, a cam, a first link, a pivot pin, a driver, a rotating pin, and an arm. The cam includes a cam slot disposed therethrough, and is attached to the actuator for linear movement inside the housing. The cam slot has a cam path that includes a locking portion and an extended travel portion. The first link is movably coupled to the cam slot via a cam pin coupled to the link. The cam pin is disposed in and configured to follow the cam path. The pivot pin is coupled to the first link at a position spaced apart from where the cam pin is coupled to the link. The driver is pivotally attached to the pivot pin. The rotating pin extends exterior of the housing and is attached to the driver inside the housing at a location spaced apart from the pivot pin. The arm is attached to the rotating pin exterior of the housing and is rotatable when the actuator linearly moves the cam which causes the cam pin to follow the cam path moving the first link which moves the driver via the pivot pin to rotate the rotating pin.
In the above and other embodiments, the armover clamp may further include: a second link, wherein the first link is attached adjacent a first surface of the cam and the second link is located adjacent a second surface of the cam such that the cam pin is movably coupled to both the first and second links; the housing including an opening that allows access to the cam to manually move the cam without opening the housing to move the arm; the locking portion of the cam path including a linear surface along which the cam pin travels to cause the arm to be capable of closing on a workpiece with a constant force; the extended travel portion of the cam path being angularly oriented with respect to the locking portion so that when the cam pin enters the extended travel portion, it provides rotation of the arm; the linear movement of the cam defining a linear-extending axis wherein the linear surface of the extended travel portion of the cam path is non-perpendicular to the linear-extending axis; wherein the arm has angular travel greater than 100 degrees; the arm being locked into position when it is located between about 0 and about 6 degrees; and the cam path that constitutes the locking and extended travel portions form an L-shaped slot.
Additional features and advantages of the gripper assembly will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon consideration of the following detailed description of the illustrated embodiment exemplifying the best mode of carrying out the gripper assembly as presently perceived.
Corresponding reference characters indicate corresponding parts throughout the several views. The exemplification set out herein illustrates embodiments of the armover clamp and such exemplification is not to be construed as limiting the scope of the armover clamp in any manner.